Bedtime stories for children and adults. Told by a dyslexic so please do let me know if you spot errors. All the stories and pictures on this page are original and are by me, Emmelina Audigier.

Tuesday, 9 July 2013

Chapter 5 - Discovery for Megan

Megan awoke with a start. A small but sharp sound, dragging
her from her sleep.

‘Chirp’

There it was again. She looked all around her but could see
nothing but leaves and flowers.

‘Chirp CHERP’

This time it was more insistent. She glanced in the
direction she thought that the sound had come from, and saw a small brown bird
almost camouflaged by the bark of the tree.

He cocked his head on one side when he saw that she had
noticed him, and then flew to another branch.

‘Chirrup’

“What’s the matter
little guy” she said gently “don’t you like sharing your bush with a stranger?
Don’t worry; I’ll be on my way in a moment”

Megan crawled out from under the bush and looked around. In
the distance, on the brow of the hill she had walked down last night, she could
see something moving. As the figures got closer she could see two men and a dog
on a lead, pulling them in her direction.

‘Chirp’

She looked again at the little brown bird as he hopped from
branch to branch, and then again at the approaching figures in the distance.
Thinking about it for a minute, she could tell that they were not entirely
mortal. The way that the shorter one of the two was dressed seemed out of
place. The taller one seemed to have hair growing out of the top of his ears.
The dog on the lead didn’t seem to belong to the group. His coat was glossy and
brown with small patches of white. He possessed the kind of melting brown eyes
that could make anyone feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Megan could not decide exactly what type of dog he was but
she felt an instant stab of jealousy towards the two men. Having a dog, that
she instinctively felt would be just the sort of dog she would like, made her
decide that they might be the sort of people that she might well get on with,
under different circumstances. Still she hesitated; the dog did look out of
place with them, so it could be that they were not so nice after all. She
crawled under the bush again and waited to see what would happen when they
passed her. She peered between the foliage wondering if they would pass her by
with out noticing. As they drew closer she could hear the tone of their voices,
lowered as if they knew that someone was hiding there.

Megan realised in a flash that they must be looking for her.
She drew back in the heart of the bush, and screwed up her eyes, wishing with all
of her might that the two strange men would not see her. She could not imagine
why these men were after her she just knew that she would be better off hiding
from them.

* * * * *

Orlaith’s attendants, on discovering Megan’s absence from
her mother’s house, informed the queen. She had decided to send after her, two of
the best trackers in fairyland. Strictly speaking they were retired from the
tracking business, to act as private detectives in the mortal world. But as
they were not as successful at this business as they had hoped, they found that
every now and then they could be persuaded to revert to their former talents

Eamon was the tall one that Megan had noticed as having hair
growing out of the tops of his ears. He was part troll and was considered to
have the brains of the outfit. Dermot was part goblin and dressed in peculiar
looking clothes to try and minimise the less human aspects of his appearance.

“Eamon” the shorter of the two men spoke first. “That bush
over there”

“Yes Dermot” the second man replied. “Don’t look at it, the
little mite might realise that we have spotted her.” then who knows what might
happen, he thought privately

“Eamon, how did Orlaith know that we would find her here?”
Dermot lowered his voice so as to make sure that only Eamon would hear.

Eamon didn’t bother to reply. Turning instead he glanced at
the path they had crossed to reach the young girl.

“Wouldn’t you rather know how a young girl like her managed
to travel so far so fast? How she managed to hide herself away on the journey
so that she was not seen by anyone who she passed?” He sighed,

“Dermot that was no ordinary punter that gave us this job,
we both know what goes on here, I’m part goblin and you are part troll, we may
be part mortal too but that is no reason for us to be stupid. This has all of
the hallmarks of being one of her majesty’s grand plans.”

Dermot fell silent. His brow creased as he thought hard
about what Eamon had said. Then ignoring his friends warning he glanced at the
bush. He saw the beautiful white flowers and the dark green leaves nestling
behind them, he noticed the way that the twigs and leaves curled round the
trunk of the bush. He glanced again, the girl had gone.

Megan sat motionless under the bush, hardly daring to
breathe. She saw the shorter of the two men glance at her and was sure for a
moment that she had been seen. She felt terror rise up within her as she met his eyes.

But he did not see her. I don’t understand, Megan thought.
He looked right at me. Right now he should be nudging his friend and rubbing
his hands in anticipation of the reward that he will get for taking me home.

The two men walked right up to the bush and circled around
it a few times. Maybe he did see me, she thought. Maybe he is just pretending
so that I don’t run.

Eamon and Dermot walked round the tree more slowly.

“I said not to look at her, didn’t I?” said Eamon angrily.
“Now look what you’ve done. She’s gone and vanished on us. How do you think we
are going to catch her now Dermot? It’s pretty hard to catch an invisible
girl”.

Dermot didn’t bother to reply. Instead he untied the dog
from his lead. The dog, which until now had not showed much interest in
anything around him, pushed his way under the bushes branches.

“Get that dog out of there” Eamon’s roar sliced through the
air like a knife.

Dermot stood looking at Eamon, with an open mouth. “We have
worked together for nearly thirty years and you have never spoken to me like
that before” he said. “There is no job on the planet worth enough to break up
our friendship”

“I know Dermot,” said Eamon somewhat more quietly. “But for
goodness sake call back that dog. We don’t want to loose him too.”

Dermot called the dog. A slight rustle of leaves was the
only reply. Eamon walked round the bush once more. “It’s no good Dermot you
won’t see that dog again. I’m sorry; I know how much you liked him. I should
have warned you.”

“You didn’t know that I was going to let him off. I just
thought that even if we couldn’t see her, that the dog would be able to smell
her.”

After a short pause Eamon turned to Dermot “let’s go home. I
knew this job would be trouble from the start. Fancy sending us the invitation
to come before the event had taken place you know as well as I do that I never
get mixed up with the time zones. I don’t like loosing a dog but I don’t want
to loose the only partner I have”

The two men turned around and started to walk back in the
direction that they had come from. Eamon glanced once over his shoulder at the
bush, and then lengthened his stride as if he could not wait to leave.

* * * * *

Underneath the bush Megan was trembling, no longer with
fear, but with delight.

She looked around her and could see the little bird in the
branches and the dog, who was sitting by her feet panting. She could see them
quite clearly so why couldn’t the men? Reaching up, to brush her now tangled
hair out from her eyes, Megan jumped in surprise. Her hand wasn’t there. She
moved it about in wonder. There was a slight pucker in the air it moved around but
if she held it still, it was completely invisible.

Looking over at the dog once more she stretched out her hand
and touched it, then withdrew as she realised that he too, was now invisible.
Megan watched the two men striding away, but they did not take any further
notice of her. Once more, she passed her hand in front of her eyes. She waited
until they had crossed over the brow of the hill, and then looked down again.
She had reappeared. She looked at the dog. He had pricked up ears and a jolly
expression. “It must have been that fairy dust I swallowed. I wonder if the
‘her majesty ’ those men were talking about was Orlaith?”

“That was her alright,” said the dog “Pink dress, swirling
wind at her feet, shouts a lot?” the dog looked questioningly at Megan, who
nodded. “Yes, she gave us an audience about two hours ago and asked those men
folk to catch you”

Megan caught her breath as she realised the dog had spoken.
The look on her face must have been full of amazement because the dog decided
to explain.

“A few years ago I did some small service for one of the
fairy attendants to the queen of Fairyland. The attendant granted me one wish
as my reward. I chose the gift of languages. I can understand any creature and
make myself understood when I choose.”

“How wonderful!”
exclaimed Megan, “a talking dog. Can you tell me who those men were and how you
came to be chasing me?”

“They are Eamon and Dermot P.I.’s. I decided to stay with
them until I found someone who I would like to live with more. I was chasing
you because I didn’t know until I saw you that you were the one I would like to
live with.” said the dog “can you scratch behind my ears for me please?”

“P.I.’s?” wondered Megan.

“Private Investigators. Go on please; I’ve got an awful
itch”

“I think I ought to know your name before I scratch you
behind the ears.

“Johan Sebastian, better known as Bach, at your service”
Said the dog. “You humans have a funny sense of humour”

“Well Bach, Why don’t you tell me more about yourself and
the men and why they were after me?” said Megan “and I will scratch your ears
at the same time.

“I am guessing that you won’t be interested in the whole
‘puppy, one of a litter of six stories’. So I will cut to the chase. Orlaith
explained what has been going on with you and Michael to Eamon and I listened
in. I know Michael so I thought I would come for a walk and meet you.”

Megan sat up as if she could not have been more surprised if
he claimed he had come from the moon.

“What’s more than that, I know that Michael is in trouble
and we are going to be the ones to save him.” Megan hugged Bach tight.

“Really you’re going to help me” She exclaimed.

“On one condition” said Bach solemnly “I don’t want to eat
any more of that disgusting dog food from tins, in chunks in gravy, with jelly
or otherwise. It’s all utterly horrible.”

“I promise,” said Megan equally solemnly

“First things first” Bach said standing up “you are going to
need to learn to control your magic. This is a rather splendid bush, but it is
not the type you need, to make a wand from.”

Megan looked blank

“You know a wand like the fairy’s have” said Bach
impatiently”

“But I’m not a fairy”

“No, but you have all the power of one because you ate some
of the fairy dust. How did you think you managed to get so far, so fast,
without anyone seeing you?”

Megan looked a little puzzled but Bach continued to
talk.

"It said in the papers that Michael had fallen in love with you one day, and then this morning there was a followup piece that stated that Michael was suspected of stealing fairy-dust from the castle and that furthermore that you were suspected of having tasted it. After tracking you this far was sure that it was the case. I could smell the changes taking place within you as you traveled. I don't suppose you remember what it tasted like do you?"

Megan tilted her head to one side a she thought about it. "Honey and lemons" she said at last. "It was a bit like cough syrup but without that nasty tang."

"Okay said Bach "I think that because it tasted nice to you it means that you now can work with the magic of a fairy even though you are still mortal".

So they sat under the pretty bush and made a plan for the
rescue of Michael. As Megan was not a fairy she could not enter Fairyland
though the gates with the guard troll. Fortunately Bach knew of another way in.

“The Dragonlands” he said proudly. “No mortal is brave
enough to go through the Dragonlands, so the fairies don’t bother putting
warding spells and guards there because they think no-one will try and get in
that way.

“I wonder why” Megan muttered under her breath.

“Don’t take on so, we will be fine. You have the fairy dust
inside you, that will get us though.” said Bach “The only thing that we need to
worry about is where to find the path to the Dragonlands.”

So under the cover of the invisibility spell, Megan and Bach
set out to find the perfect wood for her wand. All mortals have inside them the
path to the Dragonlands, Bach had explained. It’s just that they don’t know how
to read what is inside their heads. The wand will just show you the way your
heart already knows.

Megan reflected for a while. The vast
majority of people don’t even know what they want out of life, how they can
possibly know the way to somewhere that they are not even sure exists, when
… She stopped ‘this is far too
complicated for me,’ she thought.

Bach grinned in a doggy way. Humans, he thought, can’t teach
an old human, new tricks. He stopped at a tree with long smooth twigs, snapped
one off in his mouth then passed it to Megan.

“So far you have been relying on instinct to control your
magic. This is fine for now but you will have to learn how to spell cast soon,
so that you can be more precise. There is not much to it. You just have to think
what you want to do and form your thoughts into a rhyme. It does not have to be
good poetry but it does have to rhyme. That way the spell knows when you are
finished casting.”

“For now, we will rely on your instinct. We will just focus
it a bit more. Lesson one. Hold this out in front of you and think of Michael.”
He instructed.

The twig twisted in Megan’s hand until it pointed towards
the direction of the village they had walked through last. They walked in that
direction for a while until the stick turned again.

Eventually they came to the cliffs but the stick pointed
over the ocean, into the path of the setting sun.

Tired, with the walking they had done and discouraged at the
impossibility of the task ahead, Megan and Bach went to sleep in the open. It
was once more a balmy night. They needed no cover, as they had each other to
keep warm.

Megan discovers more of what she can do with the fairy-dust inside her.

Previous Chapters

This Week in Fairyland

Michael the Leprechaun spotted by a mortal, Twice! It happens to all of us once but rarely twice, and never twice in the same week.

Michael having being spotted the second time bargained for his release with his heart. Shortly afterwards he embarked on a Journey to visit our wise and beautiful queen Orlaith. He was given a tour of the castle, and given anultimatum by our lovely queen. Michael returned home only to find that his naughty behavior had been discovered. The mortal who had caught him in the first place, most suspiciously, we feel, fled from our wonderful queen. This mortal then discovered she had changed in some interesting ways.She then proceed to violate the terms (however unknowingly) of our treaty with the dragons, and entered the Dragon lands. Then in a spate of naughtiness rare ingenuity seen since the 'great hiding' she broke into the back door of the castle. Fortunately our wise and powerful queen was soon able to expel both Michael the Leprechan and the mortal from the lost rooms. This reporter has been informed that the Mortal has come to some sort of arrangement with our most forgiving queen Orlaith and will be allowed to return to fairyland on the vacations.

For more Information about Michael, Leprechauns in general or for the newest fairy among us, Megan. Please turn to page 3

IN OTHER NEWS.

SUBSCRIPTIONS TO THIS BLOG NOW CONTAIN ONE FREE WISH. ONE PER SUBSCRIPTION. LIMITED SUPPLY. FIRST COME FIRST SERVED. T&C'S APPLY.

Gnome Labor Strike planned in time for Solstice.

It seams that growing rash of garden gnome vandalism across the UK has prompted Gnomes unions everywhere to take a firm stance this summer. 'teenagers now are out of control' said one representative, 'and although we know that the solstice is a difficult time for everyone, we feel that now is the best time to make ourselves heard.'